Internet Meme Proposal

You should form a group (about 3-4 people) and brainstorm what kinds of things might be an interesting attempt at creating an Internet meme. Please create your own group wiki to help organize and present your thoughts at this time.

To help with this, each member of the group should review of one of the episodes of Know Your Meme (http://www.knowyourmeme.com/episodes) where they deconstruct a given meme and provide some humorous insight as to why its memetic. Outline this in the proposal as background research.


Background Research


Know your Meme Review
Rebecca DeLuca


The "Om Nmon Nmon Nmon" meme is utilized to describe eating on the internet. It shows someone or something being completely engrossed in what they are eating. The "Om Nmon Nmon Nmon" meme originated from Sesame Street's popular character Cookie Monster. He used the "om nmon nmon nmon" sound while devouring cookies. Since the meme has found growing popularity on the internet it can now be seen not only as text or within photos, it has also become a popular form of viral video.

The "Om Nmon Nmon Nmon" meme has followed in the successful steps of cat macros, however there are important differences. Unlike things such as "lolcats", "om nmon nmon nmon" is much more general. It is not restricted to one species or type of images, instead it can be related to anything. People can past the text on pictures of any animal or person. People also began to place faces on various objects in order to utilize the text. Also, because "om nmon nmon nmon" is a sound, it has also been applied to videos.

This episode of "Know your Meme" illustrates one of many integral characteristics of successful internet memes. Internet memes should be versatile and allow for people to recreate them in as many ways as possible. When a person creates an internet meme, if it is too restricted it has the chance of being unsuccessful as the meme cannot grow.




Know your Meme Review
Konrad Sit





The “Brother Sharp” meme is a phenomenon that is increasing in popularity. The man Brother Sharp has many followers and multiple blogs discussing the topic of this apparently homeless man. He is located in the streets of Ningbo, Zhejiang and wanders the streets as a beggar. Brother Sharp is one of the most famous talked about people in Chinese Cyberspace and has been dubbed as one of the most handsome underdog people of this century.

Brother sharp originated from photos taken by photographer in Tian Yi Square when trying to test out new lenses. On January 30, 2010 the photographer took out his new SONY camera to capture some shots of the streets. Brother sharp was in a couple shots that were posted on the photographer (Mr. Tu) website called www.fengniao.com. Brother sharp was tagged as a homeless man bearing dignification as he walked down the busy streets.

Know Your Meme Review
Elisa Reale


David After Dentist

This widely popular internet meme stars an 8 year old boy just moments after his oral surgery and first experience with anesthesia. It's a combination of the humour coming from the innocence and confusion of the young boy, and the fact that the young boy is essentially 'high' from his oral surgery, that makes this video hilarious and controversial at the same time, the perfect combination for a successful and 'pass on worthy' internet meme. This father of the boy, also the creator and distributor of the video, was criticized for potentially exploiting the young boy in his 'altered' state when it became viral, but it was exactly the fact that it is such a young boy, and his innocence and inexperience with anesthesia which make it so funny. If the same lines were said coming from an adult, although it may have been funny, it would not seem as out of the ordinary and outrageous enough for people to want to watch it again and again and share it with friends.

This "david after dentist" meme not only became viral, but a brand in itself with respective forums, twitter and tumblr blogs, it's own website and even merchandise like t-shirts with David's famous lines on them. Viewers even had their own fun with the meme creating tons of remixes and parodies, such as David after divorce and David after drugs, which themselves became viral videos also getting millions of views.


Know Your Meme Review
By: Christopher Gomes

    • July 28th, 2010 a local news station in Hunstville, Alabama aired a segment of Antonie Dobson (who was talking in behalf of his sister Kelly Dobson). Despite the really serious matter at hand, Antonie found a way to make it really really funny.Through interactive Social Networking sites (Reddit, BuzzFeed, dlisted, BestWeekEver.tv) and gaining about 5 million viewers in days though YouTube, despite the user name being quite a disguise (D01D1111), but eventually taken down for copyright claims. It was amazing how many parodies that were made because of Antonie's video.
    • Later a new variation was made of Antonie's Video which was called the "Bed Intruder Song" and the producers went so far to give the lyrics and chords so that anyone could easily make their own version. This whole thing went viral, that the "Gregory Brothers" contacted Antonie and attempted to gain proceeds from making the song onto iTunes and even showcased on Billboards top 100 songs.
    • Compared to FasilMarceaux.com, the differences were clear, NON SENSE VS. SENSE.. not Age, Race, or Profession. Therefore Laughing with vs. at is something to consider. People in Alabama were considering his loud, flamboyant personality to be a poor representation of the black community (just like what Jersey Shore is doing to the New Jersey and Italian population throughout). The internet at large was on this topic that Antonie Dobson created his own site, Facebook and YouTube pages, and even was found on television. On the cct300 site homepage a YouTube video was shown that he even went so far to start his own iPhone app.
    • Antonie may seem outrageous and loud, but to his family and people who follow him online, he is looked as a hero, and we see how some will disapprove, but to proper understanding of media can empower any individual to start a new sort of trend or meme that in a sense goes viral on the net, creating something out of really nothing special. The power of how things spread through online sites is greater than ever now as hyper-linking makes everything connected, and never feeling like the outside person looking in by being involved. Meme's are usually something that is similar to something that has a popular image or perceived image, but is pertained in a different matter or way in the meme, making it funny because of its abnormality.








Brainstorm Ideas

This has potential to go viral as it can involve participation of the viewers, as they may get their own idea for a new funny image and then create and share it, whcih further spreads the meme. This makes it interactive and enjoyable.
  • create a saying that can become popular on the internet.
a sound to describe various actions (similar to "om nmon nmon nmon") -
ex: sleeping, getting angry, bored, etc.
add this caption to various images to get the message across
  • create a satirical movie clip of an important event
Election debate?
G20 Summit
remix/spread this video
  • To make this video go viral all group members must use our online social capital to its fullest potential and post it on all of our social networking and blogging sites to ensure that it gets noticed and passed around. To get the most out of the reach of our collective networks, the meme should be targeted to a demographic similar to ours.


Brainstorm

Ways to make our meme go viral:
  • Spread the original video (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Etc)
  • Take the soundclip from original video and add it to different videos and spread those videos the same way
  • Use the words from the original video and paste it onto different pictures
  • Allow other people to download the sound clip and remix it in their own way